Reputable

We just moved into a new house, which is fairly big at 3000 sq ft not even including the redone basement. I had an old Netgear N600 router that I decided to replace with a Netgear AC1200.
Unfortunately the router had to go into one corner of the house on the middle floor and my computer is all the way at the other corner on the second floor, so just as I expected im getting a horrible signal. My computer is constantly dropping to one out of the 3 full bar strengths. Never goes to full strength.
This is what I am getting on my computer for a speed. We bought 100 mbps internet.
I downloaded the speedtest app and walked around the house and was getting 48 mbps on my iphone in closer parts of the house.

So my question is, what should I do? Buy a wifi extender and place it somewhere in the middle of the house that gets more speed? is it the router that actually sucks and should i upgrade to maybe the Nighthawk AC1900?

Commendable

Try testing with both a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz connection and see which one holds up better.

2.4Ghz can penetrate solid objects better, but 5Ghz has a much lower noise floor in a crowded urban area with congested WiFi signals from everyone else's router. So paradoxically, 5Ghz can actually be better due to the improved SNR level.

If all else fails, there are power line to Ethernet adapters available.

Titan

Definitely get powerline ethernet adapters - - they really do work and so simple to set up. Whoever first came up with the idea of using house-wiring as a networking path deserves a knighthood in my opinion.

Reputable

so I just got that unit delivered and plugged it in and its working. It certainly increased my speed from the 12 Mbps to about 32Mbps but the thing is still slower then my old house. I used to get around 53 Mbps when i did the test. I also used to get like 8 MB/S when downloading on steam now its like 3.5-4 MB/s.

Commendable

so I just got that unit delivered and plugged it in and its working. It certainly increased my speed from the 12 Mbps to about 32Mbps but the thing is still slower then my old house. I used to get around 53 Mbps when i did the test. I also used to get like 8 MB/S when downloading on steam now its like 3.5-4 MB/s.

Ethernet over powerline adapters can be hit or miss depending on the house electrical wiring. So you might not be able to get the full rated bandwidth out of them. But, that's far better than wireless in that there's very little packet-loss. Despite not getting the full capability from your ISP, having little to no packet-loss in tandem with lower latency is much preferred. So again, Ethernet over powerline is a winning move considering how bad your previous WiFi connection was.

As for the Netgear AC1200 being the bottleneck? Possibly. But, given it contains the MediaTek MT7621ST CPU that's rated for five concurrent 1Gbp/s Ethernet, I somehow doubt that. Also, being clocked at 800Mhz and not having to do Next Generation firewall capability means that very little of that CPU is having to be used anyways.

Try disabling the WiFi on the router and test again. If you're getting full bandwidth again from the ISP, then either the CPU is being overloaded processing that, or you have WiFi devices leaching bandwidth at the same time you are.

With regards to Steam - yeah, no telling. Perhaps the downloading limitation is a time of day or game thing. I've seen those rates become a very inconsistent metric to judge things on from that service.

Reputable

Yeah I can see what youre getting at. It certainly is better then keeping it over wifi for my problem. And the adapters were relatively cheap on amazon, $39.99.

I will try turning off wifi on my router and see what happens. Getting to the devices, there are a lot of devices running off wifi but since my computer is now running through a cable, you say the devices over wifi could be stealing my bandwidth? Because there are 3-4 iphones and up to 2 smart tvs possibly running off this all at once.
So then the next question would be you said its possible that my AC1200 is bottle necking it, do you think its worth the upgrade? I got it for 78 bucks I dont mind spending in the range of 150ish if i have to especially if ill get some better speeds.

Commendable

Yeah I can see what youre getting at. It certainly is better then keeping it over wifi for my problem. And the adapters were relatively cheap on amazon, $39.99.

So then the next question would be you said its possible that my AC1200 is bottle necking it, do you think its worth the upgrade? I got it for 78 bucks I dont mind spending in the range of 150ish if i have to especially if ill get some better speeds.

Go with one of these. They're the new hotness in WiFi, and they do Mesh with a Meshpoint. Yes, you could have gotten one of those instead of the powerline adapter, but still wouldn't have been a stable IMHO. Besides, the meshpoints are about a hundred buck a pop.

FYI, I deal with Ubiquity products for business use. Their UAP-AC-PRO access points are sweet. Not recommended for average consumer use as it requires know-how on setting them up with either the Unifi Controller app, a Cloud Key, or manual configuration with via SSH (can use PUTTY). Performance is AWESOME however.

Reputable

are those different adapters? I dont mind the ones you showed me the other day. I like the ease of use for these ones and the ability to have my computer plugged into a wire for the little packet loss.

What I was asking is if you think it is worth upgrading my router from the ac1200? like maybe this ac1900 nighthawk?

Commendable

Honestly, I think Netgear and Linksys are crap. Unifi/Ubiquity is far better in performance - they employ real engineering into RF, and it shows.

The only downside with the AmpliFi product is that being their first consumer based focus, it's missing ancellary features in the configuration. Good news however is that they're always updating the firmware. So it does get the active love and attention in terms of post-sales support. With Netgear and Linksys, yeah...they kinda leave you high and dry after about a year or so after their product is launched.

As for the Mesh Point HD, that's an accessory to the AmpliFi router. You can use just the router by itself to provide WiFi, or extend the range in the home with a Mesh Point as well. You can buy them as a kit, or the parts separate. Order what you need, then expand later if desired.

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